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In January, 1771, Daniel Marshall, an ordained Baptist minister of great piety, zeal, and ability, originally from Connecticut, moved into Georgia from South Carolina with his family, and settled on Kiokee Creek, about twenty miles northwest of Augusta. In the spring of 1772, he organized the Kiokee Baptist Church there, the first Baptist church constituted in Georgia. Botsford Baptist Church, formed the following year by Edmund Botsford, was the second. Daniel Marshall continued pastor of the Kiokee Baptist Church until his death, in 1784, being succeeded by his son, Abraham Marshall, who was succeeded in turn by his son, Jabez Marshall, in 1819.

In 1784, the first Baptist Association, known as the Georgia, was formed in the State, probably at Kiokee church. At that time there were but six or eight Baptist churches in Georgia, and it is probable that the following were the original constituent churches of the body: Kiokee, Red Creek (now Abilene), Little Brier Creek, Fishing Creek, and Upton’s Creek.​ The early ministers of the Baptists, impelled by a burning desire to preach the gospel, went everywhere proclaiming the Word, and the Lord blessed their work greatly. Again and again great and general revivals swept over the state in consequence of their faithful preaching. In 1802, not less than 3,345 new converts were added to the four Baptist associations of the state. From 1812 to 1813, over 1,200 were baptized in the Sarepta Association alone, and a great blessing descended upon the entire state. In 1827, a memorable and most remarkable revival of religion commenced in Eatonton under the preaching of Adiel Sherwood, and resulted in the addition of not less than 15,000 or 20,000 to the Georgia Baptist churches. More than 5,000 baptisms were reported that year in three Associations—the Georgia, the Ocmulgee, and the Flint River. After a sermon preached in the open air by Adiel Sherwood at Antioch church, in Morgan County, during which the Holy Spirit gave him uncommon liberty, 4,000 persons came forward for prayer, and for fifteen years afterwards persons who joined the Antioch and other churches referred to that sermon and time as the cause and date of their conversion.